Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
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WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS AND MINIATURES MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2020 WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS AND MINIATURES MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2020 | 2pm AUCTION FORMAT: LIVE ONLINE AUCTION NO. 14297 BLOOMSBURY AUCTIONS: This is a live online auction with an auctioneer. Bidding is available online, by 16-17 Pall Mall telephone or commission (absentee) bids. If not bidding online, please contact St James's SPECIALISTS: Bloomsbury Auctions or Dreweatts to register all commission bids or telephone London Dr Timothy Bolton bids by 11am (local time) on Monday 7 December. SW1Y 5LU [email protected] FREE ONLINE BIDDING IS AVAILABLE AT BLOOMSBURYAUCTIONS.COM: Camilla Previté ENQUIRIES: The Bloomsbury Auctions bidding platform allows you to watch, listen and bid [email protected] + 44 (0) 20 7839 8880 with no additional online bidding fees applicable. [email protected] VIEWING AT bloomsburyauctions.com REGISTRATION: BLOOMSBURY AUCTIONS: We advise clients to register at least 48 hours in advance of the auction as you Viewing will be available by may be asked to provide documents to verify your identity. Registration for new appointment only and in strict Front cover: Lot 57 clients will close at 11am (local time) on Monday 7 December. accordance with government Covid-19 Inside front cover & page 1: Lot 64 regulations: Opposite: Lot 17 BUYER’S PREMIUM: Back cover: Lot 66 Buyer’s premium is charged per lot at 25% of the hammer price (30% including Thursday 3 December: 10am – 5pm VAT) up to and including £500,000, 20% (24% including VAT) of the hammer Friday 4 December: 10am – 5pm Catalogues £15 price from £500,001 up to and including £1,000,000, and 12% of the hammer Saturday 5 December: 11am – 4pm (£17.50 by post) price (14.4% including VAT) in excess of £1,000,001. Sunday 6 December: 11am – 4pm A theta symbol (θ) indicates that the lot is a zero rated item and therefore There will be no viewing on the day of not subject to VAT on the buyer’s premium. This applies to bound books the auction. (manuscripts and printed), unframed maps and albums. We are pleased to also offer further PAYMENT: images of items on request and have Please note, we cannot accept payment by telephone for lots bought by first placed links in our online catalogue time bidders. For details on other payment methods, please see our website. to short videos of each of the bound codices having their leaves turned. REMOTE VIEWING SERVICE: Remote Viewing will also be available by appointment. Our Remote Viewing Service allows you to view specified Lots via your smartphone from the comfort of your own home at a time convenient to you. See our website for further details.. See our website for further details. 3 Lot 1 1 Two small cuttings from a commentary on Luke 10, in Latin, with a large decorated initial, manuscripts on parchment [probably Italy, ninth century] Lot 2 Two rectangular cuttings, recovered from reuse after the Middle Ages on the spine of a later book, each with remains of single column of 13 lines of a good Carolingian minuscule, with an et-ligature used integrally within words, and strong st- and ct-ligatures, remnants of red rubrics, one large initial, perhaps ‘B’ (if so, probably opening “Bene has utrasque vitas duae ...”, ch. 26 of Paterius’ commentary), in intertwined bands of red and blank parchment 2 on black grounds, with terminals ending in stylised penwork foliage sprays, scuffs, holes, tears to edges and other damage concomitant with recovery from Leaf from a Sacramentary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably west-central region), eleventh century reuse in a later binding, overall fair condition, 77 by 43mm. and 72 by 39mm. (perhaps early or even c. 1000)] The remaining text here is slight, but most probably can be identified as the commentary of St. Paterius on the New Testament (Liber Single leaf, with single column of 20 lines of a finely written Romanesque bookhand, using a thin and precise nib, with pronounced ‘fish-tailing’ to some testimoniorum novi testamenti), in a variant form to that edited by Migne (PL. LXXIX, 1849, col. 1062, chs. 25-26, with the last word of line 1-line ascenders, a strong st- and ct-ligature and surprisingly the use of et-ligature integrally within words (usually a Carolingian feature, perhaps carried over 2 and line 3 of the smaller fragment identifiable as parts of ch. 25, separated in Migne’s edition by 7 further lines that are not here, and the last 3 from an earlier exemplar), bright red rubrics, initials in simple red with baubles mounted in their bodies or in brown ink and infilled with red sections lines of the cutting with the initial clearly identified as part of ch. 26). Paterius was a friend and secretary to Gregory the Great, who died in 606. (most probably following models of earlier tenth-century exemplar), recovered from reuse in later binding and hence with folds, small spots, scuffs, holes His work was popular in the Early Middle Ages, especially so during the Carolingian Renaissance when it was used by Hrabanus Maurus. and a rust mark from a paperclip once affixed at top on one side, overall good condition and on heavy parchment, 203 by 136mm. This identification is important as Paterius’ text survives in its original format only for the section from Genesis to the Song of Songs, with the later parts partly recorded in the twelfth century by Alulphus de Tournai in his Gregorialis (the so-called pseudo-Paterio C), an anonymous The script and initials here have features that are somewhat incongruous in the eleventh century, but not unheard of (see Schøyen sale in our abbreviation from Wisdom onwards (the pseudo-Paterio A), and a revision by Bruno monachus (the pseudo-Paterio B). Migne’s edition was a rooms, 8 July 2020, lots 31 & 32), and perhaps were carried over from a Carolingian exemplar. The presence of St. Hermes among the prayers is collage of these various versions. These fragments would appear to be a witness to the otherwise lost part of the work on the New Testament, rare for Italy, and suggests an origin in the region around Rome where he was celebrated, or Spoleto, Acquapendente and perhaps to the north, predating all other witnesses by some three centuries. Lucca, who each had relics. £500-700 £1,200-1,800 4 www.bloomsburyauctions.com | +44 (0) 20 7839 8880 Buyer’s Premium: 25% + VAT on that premium (where applicable) 5 Lot 3 Lot 4 3 4 Leaf from a Romanesque Lectionary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Montecassino or Naples), Palladius of Cappadocia, Historia Lausiaca, in Latin translation, cutting from a large leaf, decorated manuscript on parchment eleventh or twelfth century] [France, mid- to late twelfth century] Single leaf, with 22 lines of two sizes of a square and angular bookhand, without biting curves, bright red rubrics, tall capitals touched in pale yellow Top half of a leaf, with remains of 30 lines in a good and professional early Gothic bookhand, written with a few biting curves and above topline, remains wash, three coloured initials in interlocking and parallel acanthus leaf fronds in dark blue, pale green and bright red, two of these held together by white of a large red initial and a red rubric on reverse, recovered from a binding and hence with stains, discoloured areas, small holes, tears and folds, much penwork bands and with simple coloured leaves at their terminals, recovered from a binding (with sixteenth-century penwork title on spine) and hence scuffed on reverse, overall fair and presentable condition, 234 by 304mm. trimmed at edges with losses to margins, scuffs, small holes, folds and small sections of paper adhering, overall fair and presentable condition, 265 by 155mm. This text is one of the most important witnesses to the lives of the Desert Father saints. It was written by Palladius of Galatia around 419-420 at the request of Lausus, chamberlain to the court of Emperor Theodosius III. Following a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the author travelled into The initials here with their tri-coloured lappets and forms related to white-vine initials, but quite distinct from them, are striking in that their the Nitrian desert, where he spent nine years with Macarius and Evagrius. It was fundamentally popular among monastic readers, and A. closest comparables are in manuscripts written in Beneventan minuscule in Montecassino or Naples (see F. Avril and Y. Załuska, Manuscrits Wellhausen records approximately 110 extant manuscripts, all in institutional ownership. The fragment here contains a large part of ch. 38 and enlumines d’origine italienne, I, 1980, nos. 30 and 31 for eleventh-century examples, with later c. 1100 and twelfth-century examples in nos. the opening of ch. 39, on the figures Evagrius and Pior, and thus for much of the text here this is an eye-witness account of Evagrius’ life. 32 and 34). Manuscripts were written in mainstream Romanesque hands in such Beneventan centres (see that sold in our rooms, 8 July 2015, lot 13), and this is probably another example of palaeographic and decorative cross-over with a scribe from Montecassino or Naples £1,000-1,500 experimenting in Romanesque Carolingian minuscule. £1,500-2,000 6 www.bloomsburyauctions.com | +44 (0) 20 7839 8880 Buyer’s Premium: 25% + VAT on that premium (where applicable) 7 Lot 5 Lot 6 5 6 θ Leaf from a Glossed Gospel of Luke, in Latin, manuscript Single leaf from a monumental Biblical codex, with on parchment [probably Italy, second half of twelfth century Revelation 18-19, in Latin, manuscript on parchment, in situ (probably after c.